Performance Appraisals

You need to pre-translate first. What in English is "The Paris Conservatory Concert Society Orchestra" is in French, the literal translation of "The Orchestra of the Society of Concert of the Conservatory of Paris". Spanish is similar. They probably could have translated "Engineer for facilitating video after production".

Jerry

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Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get.
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Reply to
Jerry Avins
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Hello Martin,

That's a common misconception even among professional translators. They think that you don't need to be an engineer to translate technical stuff. The result is often close to the manuals that come with some Asian consumer products, between funny and largely incomprehensible.

Ask one of your engineer friends to do it. Afterwards you could still have it polished to top-notch Castellano but chances are they put some mistakes back in. Happened to me when I did my own translation into Dutch (many moons ago when I could properly speak it). The boss corrected some of the not so well worded parts. Then the company gave it to an in-house pro who is Dutch. Whoops, nearly all my not so well worded parts were back in :-)

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com
Reply to
Joerg

Hi Vladimir,

No just wait a dog-gone second here!!! Are you implying that HR people are not hard-working, conscientious, skilled, caring employees?

Ha ha ha ha ha.

I worked for 15 years in the aerospace industry. My experience is that 80% of HR people should fired as soon as possible. (Those folks were actually detrimental to the welfare of a company.)

In my experience, HR people were like Govt employees (I worked for the Fed Govt for 15 years). One person out of five does the useful work, and 4 people out of 5 screw around for 6 hours a day playing on the computer and gossiping on the phone to their sister.

What I've learned in recent years is that HR people are often in charge of "Company Training". Because they have no concept whatsoever of what training is needed by their company's employees (particularly engineers) they focus their training expenditures on things like "How To Handle A Difficult Employee", "How To Conduct An Effective Meeting", or "How To Empower Your Employees (that's one of my favorites)

---generally useless training in the competitive world of engineering companies.

[-Rick-]
Reply to
Rick Lyons

While Jerry's sig line was ment to imply products/designs, it also includes the organizations we live/work in. Bitching about HR, and doing something about it is the difference between acting like those in HR that sit on the phone and chat with their sisters, and being engineers making or society a better place.

Reply to
fpga_toys

HR *definitely* belong on the B Arc!

Regards,

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Mark McDougall, Engineer
Virtual Logic Pty Ltd, 
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Reply to
Mark McDougall

Of course, this works both ways. Much of the technical literature for components which is available in Chinese has been translated from English by someone in China with an English degree. Some of the Chinese is just as funny as the Asian consumer product manuals you refer to.

Steve

Reply to
Steve Underwood

In message , dated Fri,

1 Sep 2006, Joerg writes

REALLY professional translators ask for help on the translators' newsgroup. Most of its traffic is about queries on technical terms.

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2006 is YMMVI- Your mileage may vary immensely.
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Reply to
John Woodgate

We had one very bright but dyslexic engieer at Cambridge Instruments, who never really got the idea that it mattered how you spelled a word as long as what you wrote sounded right, so he used "their", "there" and "they're" as if they were interchangeable, and - while he appreciated the theory behind our complaints about his spelling, he never took us really seriously, because he couldn't imagine that we didn't hear the words printed on the page.

I offered to spell check his written output on a number of occasions, but he never took me up on it.

--
Bill Sloman, Nijmegen
Reply to
bill.sloman

"Joerg" schreef in bericht news:D4LJg.5081$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr14.news.prodigy.com...

I doubt if many of the Asian manuals are the work of professional translators at all. Not only are they funny/incomprehensible, but also full of spelling mistakes.

Asian websites have the same problems. Always a flash intro to tell you have finally found the pot of gold, a large jpg as background that gives the impression there are all sorts of clickable menus which there aren't, a bible text about their company mission that makes them look better than Mother Theresa, and a shopping cart button that only pops up an email form.

All that they do is cut & paste and change some pictures.

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Thanks, Frank.
(remove 'q' and '.invalid' when replying by email)
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Reply to
Frank Bemelman

IF ONLY they would bluddy well stick to that then all would be well (only the shareholders have a problem, but we did not get any options ... so - who cares).

The above goes for government too BTW: The more they "work" the more the taxpayers will suffer!

Reply to
Frithiof Andreas Jensen

Hello Bill,

That's ok.

That's not ok. Not seeking help in an area where you have a lack is a mistake. Sometimes a serious one, like when it affects safety (Oh, we don't need that EMC consultant...).

Sure I could do the biz taxes myself. Do I do that? Nope. To avoid costly mistakes I am using an attorney/CPA who is expert in that matter. In the same way that my clients use me.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com
Reply to
Joerg

Hello John,

Interesting. Which NG is that? Might have to point some folks there ;-)

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com
Reply to
Joerg

One of the things that you learn being dyslexic, is miss spellings are frequently valid words in the dictionary, and that spell checkers are marginally useful at best.

"their", "there" and "they're" are all valid spellings, and spell check is useless.

I know when I write, I internally know what I want in correct english. What the brain writes thru my fingers and seen by my eyes is quite frequently different. Especially when tired, stressed, etc. One example is that I frequently will replace a word with the word that follows it, such that it's there twice. Or that a completely different word will pop out ... such as replacing "the" with "and", or "this" with "there", or "that" with "this".

I proof right over these mistakes when writing most of the time. If I wait about 3 days, and reproof, I spot it immediately. Frequently, what comes out my fingers will be the wrong suffix for a word construction, such as "confident" will be replaced with "confidence". Transpositions are also a problem, but for some reason they are a little easier for me to spot while writing, but not always. This is one area where spell check makes a difference, some times.

I worked for a boss for several years that was worse than me. We used to proof each others writings. Only about 50% of the time could we spot the others mistakes, the rest of the time our brain would automatically correct their mistake too, and continue to do so every time we reread that section. Then, for whatever reason, several days later it would be obviously wrong if proofed again.

I realize that your coworkers actions may have seemed, indifferent. That in your mind, these kind of mistakes are just careless. But again, your brain isn't wired that way.

Reply to
fpga_toys

A while back this was passed around on various mailing lists:

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

It was interesting that most of my friends could struggle thru it with little trouble. Those of us that are also dyslexic, found it was MUCH easier.

Besides language, this less rigid form of viewing the world is frequently useful, and productive, at following others work, spotting errors in others designs, and following non-traditional design approaches that are outside what others would consider, even when they are boxed in and see no other solution. So the abnormality of our brains, which includes dyslexia and a number of other "different" wirings in our brains, also turns out to also be a gift.

It's also genetic ... my mom and son both are too.

Reply to
fpga_toys

In message , dated Fri, 1 Sep 2006, fpga snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com writes

Yes, because you both had the same trait, 'brain wired that way'). You needed a third party.

Even skilled proof-readers find that. But even at first reading, it's almost as if the errors are printed in a different colour, they are so obvious. And this can extend to poor sentence construction, like 'only' being in the wrong place.

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2006 is YMMVI- Your mileage may vary immensely.
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Reply to
John Woodgate

In message , dated Fri, 1 Sep 2006, fpga snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com writes

It's more rare in females. But there are 57 varieties of 'dyslexia'. Are you left-handed?

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OOO - Own Opinions Only. Try www.jmwa.demon.co.uk and www.isce.org.uk
2006 is YMMVI- Your mileage may vary immensely.
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Reply to
John Woodgate

In message , dated Fri,

1 Sep 2006, Joerg writes

sci.lang.translation

For time to time, it can get as surreal as this NG, but there is much less traffic. And no abuse now.

About five years ago, we had a real nutter; Spanish and good at translation (and, incidentally, an expert at retrieving stuff from the Internet), but he went as far as making threatening phone calls, and someone with contacts in the Spanish police arranged for him to be shown the error of his ways.

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OOO - Own Opinions Only. Try www.jmwa.demon.co.uk and www.isce.org.uk
2006 is YMMVI- Your mileage may vary immensely.
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Reply to
John Woodgate

Amazing. I could actually read it about as fast as if it were regular text.

Then again most of us are used to piece together incomplete data on the fly. Like when you can barely hear a PA announcement over the din of an airport crowd. PA system: "... teen fifty .... ver ... celled". Brain: "Oh drat, now I'm not going to make the meeting in Denver on time".

That would mean that analog folks often fall into that group. We have a knack for stepping back, squinting and then coming up with some outlandish and really unorthodox solution. "You mean, this can be done without a micro?"

But you did the right thing: Realized it and either proof read a few days later or let others proof. Way to go.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com
Reply to
Joerg

Hello John,

That can also happen if you regularly have to switch between languages several times a day.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com
Reply to
Joerg

Tough call ... my mom trained me to be right handed. I'm nearly ambi. Twice (at 9 and 12) I dislocated my right arm and wore a cast for 3 months, learning to write left handed, and function left handed. Today, I tend to still favor right hand for writing and some tasks.

My mom and son are both left handed.

In 7th grade my son finally had a teacher that had a clue what my son was struggling with. Her daughter about the same age was also dyslexic, so she did her masters thesis on it. I was amazed at the long list of related "dysfunctional traits" that dyslexics share ... better than half I relate to. In that list are ADD and ADHD, which I share with both my mom and son, but didn't learn that much about until I needed to learn more about my son's "disabilities" (or gifts), which are worse than mine.

I tend to self medicate with caffine when I need focus around distractions. But, I've never been able to function well in distractive environments, which included school and most cubical office environments, as I can not tune out the clatter of other people unless I'm "hyperfocused", at which point everything disappears in my world except the project I'm focused on (including phones, people trying to talk to me, etc). I've compensated over the years by working off-shift, frequently late afternoon into late evening, or from midnite to noon, so I have enough time with a less disruptive environment.

In hyperfocus mode, I used to work 72 hours straight without caffine, then crash for a 12-18 hour sleep as soon as the task was completed. Some times 72 on, 18 off, for monthss at a time. I've never been "solar", even today. At 55, three day days wear me down, but I still knock off 48hr days a few times a year with little trouble. You learn not to do new design on the 2nd or 3rd day, as that skill does get impaired, but I can still debug and correct problems on the 2nd/3rd day with little impairment. There are advantages to easily knocking off

100+ hr weeks with extreme focus and productivity, which offset struggling with a normal 8-5 schedule in the clatter of a normal work environment. I just don't expect the rest of my team to pull this off, they are not wired that way, and need to keep a solar clock to remain productive.

I'm also analytically functional when asleep, frequently answering the phone and talking coworkers thru a several hour disaster recovery without waking up, and being unaware of it the next day. I've also driven asleep, and was pulled over once in california at 5am asleep. It took the officer over 10 minutes to get me to pull over, and several minutes more to get me to roll down the window, and answer his questions. At one point, he screamed at me "tired hell", and I woke up, to full alert in seconds. It took him a while to realize I was asleep and not DUI. This used to drive my college girl friend nuts, as she would "wake me" to go on a date, I would get dressed, talk with her, and never wake up.

Certainly, from this prospective, we are certainly not all created equal. And our weaknesses are just as likely to be our assets.

Reply to
fpga_toys

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